Provides for unauthorized parents of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents (DAPA)

Expands the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program

Includes other important initiatives

Take part in key-note presentations led by:

Faith leaders

Federal, state, and local officials, legal service agencies

Community-based agencies

National immigrant rights groups.

Participate in discussions that:

Examine federal, New York State and New York City policy, outreach, and Executive Action initiatives.

Explore legal services mobilization efforts by public and private entities and other collaborative programs in New York City, Long Island, and the Lower Hudson Valley, focused on outreach, public education on benefit eligibility and the risk of fraud, and provision of legal screening, representation and advocacy.

Address the role of non-legal, community-based institutions, particularly Catholic parishes, in ensuring the program’s success.

Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, Catholic Migration Services of the Diocese of Brooklyn, and the Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS) will host this all-day event.

Ivan Dominguez is “maestro” in every way, a distinguished musician and a respected teacher.

And tonight, Thursday, February 26 at 7 p.m., this Maestro and Director of Catholic Charities Alianza La Plaza Beacon will be honored at the Dominican festival of dance and song, the Camerata Washington Heights & Conjunto Folklorico Dominicano, at City College’s Aaron Davis Hall.

Eight of the evening’s performers began studying Dominican dance with Mr. Dominguez as young children at Alianza La Plaza Beacon, a division of Catholic Charities that provides cultural activities, recreation and homework help for neighborhood youth. Now, after more than a decade training with this “maestro” they have performed up and down the East coast, from Washington DC to Providence, from Boston and tonight to Aaron Davis Hall at the City College of New York.

“It’s important for children in this multicultural country to know about our cultures, to know where we came from so we can understand ourselves and show respect to others,” Mr. Rodriguez says.

Catholic Charities along with key elected officials and organizations is sponsoring the evening’s free event in commemoration of Dominican Independence Day.

Spider-Man swung in for his first fantasy appearance in the Forest Hill, Queens home of this fictional boy-turned-insect’s aunt in 1962.

Now, more than 50 years later, the superhero made his latest appearance last week in the dilapidated East Harlem apartment of Jamel Hunter, a Spider-Man-obsessed boy trapped inside his thoughts by autism.

Spider-Man’s author, Stan Lee, learned about Jamel and his obsession with the comic strip hero from a New York Times Neediest Cases profile written about this eight-year old who receives help from Catholic Charities affiliate Kennedy Child Study Center.

In an effort to reach through the autism, Mr. Lee sketched a personalized comic with a special bubble, “Hi, Jamel,” and had it hand delivered to the young boy in the housing project where he lives.

Immigrants and their supporters are rallying across New York to protest a judge’s Monday night order that stymies President Obama’s executive action to reform immigration policies.

“The ruling by a lower Federal Court in Texas, while disappointing, was neither surprising nor definitive,” said Msgr. Kevin Sullivan before a conference held in Manhattan at noon today. “Catholic Charities will continue to outreach to the individuals and families who need to prepare for the important opportunities afforded by the President’s executive action and hopefully also for comprehensive immigration reform which remains a pressing need.”

He added his voice to that of elected officials, service providers and the newly arrived and personally affected who are speaking out against U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen’s ruling.

This ruling was particularly painful because it temporarily blocks the President’s planned expansion of the Defered Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program just a day before the program was set to go into effect.

It also blocks the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) set to begin in May 2015.

In New York more than 300,000 people qualify for these new programs.

“Catholic Charities focus ,” Msgr. Sullivan added, “is our legal and social services for new Americans, made in God’s image, who merit dignity and respect and the opportunity to provide basic human necessities for themselves and their families.”

Lent. Forty days before Easter when, through prayer, sacrifice and helping others, we transform our Christian love into action.

Sounds good but how exactly do we do this?

Now — and throughout the Lenten season — we give you our Lenten Messages of Inspiration.

“There are few guarantees but this one I’m betting on,” says Catholic Charities Executive Director Msgr. Kevin Sullivan.”Those who do these three Lenten practices – praying more, sacrificing more and helping others more – will find themselves in a better place when Easter comes around.”

At Catholic Charities, we mourn David Carr, the brilliant, irascible New York Times columnist who dropped dead at his desk at The New York Times last week from lung cancer.

From his memoir, Night of the Gun, many of us know the story of this powerful writer and his metamorphosis from cokehead to media guru.

But few know that he scored his initial inspiration and first story after learning from his dad about a Catholic Charities staff member beaten for standing up for men being bullied.

I was at my parents’ house one day in 1982 when my dad told me about his pal Peter, a guy who ran Catholic Charities. He watched as a couple of beefy cops pounded two black suspects already in custody. Peter stepped toward them to ask why they were beating up those guys and got a piece of same. It sounded outrageous.

“Somebody should do a story about this,” I said to my dad. Maybe, my dad said, it should be you.

I called the editor of the Twin Cities Reader. He sounded interested, in a bored, yeah-sure kind of way, committing only to read what I came up with. I pretended I knew what I was doing — isn’t that what most of life rests on? — and fumbled my way through police reports, disciplinary records, and relevant witnesses. With my pal David over my shoulder, I wrote it up. When it came time to deliver, I found myself chattering away in front of Brian, the editor, unable to hand it over.